Johan Santana is his own unique and awesome self

ORG XMIT: 139225790 NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 01: Johan Santana #57 of the New York Mets celebrates with Josh Thole #30 after pitching a no hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals at CitiField on June 1, 2012 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Johan Santana pitched the first no hitter in Mets history as the Mets defeated the Cardinals 8-0. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) ORIG FILE ID: 145561346(Photo: Mike Stobe Getty Images)

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Johan Santana returned from career-threatening surgery and pitched the Mets' first no-hitter.

I started hammering out a brief timeline of Santana's last few years with the Mets to provide some background, but I was 700 words deep before I got to the past couple of weeks. So I'll save you the bulk of the details and emphasize the gist of it: Johan Santana returned from career-threatening surgery and pitched the Mets' first no-hitter.

Who am I to doubt the man? Who is anybody?

The surgery Santana survived, which repaired the anterior capsule in his throwing shoulder late in 2010, seems more frequently to signify a career's end than its revival. At the press conference announcing Santana's need for the procedure, the Mets and Santana cited Chien-Ming Wang and Kelvim Escobar as examples of guys who endured it. Neither pitched that season, and between the two, they've totaled 94 2/3 unspectacular big-league innings since – all of them by Wang. And those were the success stories.

But Santana is neither Wang nor Escobar nor anyone but his own unique and awesome self, and Santana returned to the mound in 2012 after spending all of 2011 on the disabled list and threw 117 innings for the Mets in 2012 – most of the first 98 excellent, most of the last 19 miserable. Santana performed solidly for a month after his 134-pitch June 1 no-hitter at Citi Field, but yielded a 15.63 ERA in five July and August starts before the Mets shut him down for the remainder of the year with lower back inflammation.

At the time, Terry Collins said Santana would not throw again until January. Santana, who spent his first offseason since 2008 not recovering from one surgery or another, limited himself to what Collins called "light tossing" throughout the winter and showed up to Mets camp lacking his customary arm strength – to the apparent surprise of both pitcher and team. Collins delayed Santana's first Grapefruit League appearance to allow the two-time Cy Young Award winner time to get into pitching shape.

Following the Mets in any capacity fosters hearty skepticism, and the news sounded sirens throughout the team's fanbase and media: Is Santana hurt again? Why wasn't he ready to pitch when he arrived in camp? Will he be ready to be Johan Santana – the good Santana, the 2002-2010 and first half of 2012 Santana – by April?

Mets GM Sandy Alderson, perhaps inadvertently, fueled the fuss by admitting the team's "disappointment" in Santana's condition, calling it "self-evident" that Santana was not in pitching shape due to the fact that Santana was not yet pitching. Alderson carefully avoided blaming Santana for his situation, but even the suggestion that Santana might have dallied in the offseason prompted agitation, as if Santana were suddenly no longer the guy who returned from career-threatening surgery and pitched the Mets' first no-hitter, not to mention the guy who held onto the ball as his pitch count escalated during that no-hitter.

Santana, frustrated with the Mets' stance on his timetable and/or the media's reaction to the Mets' stance, then held an impromptu bullpen session that Collins called the "unnecessary" product of Santana's being "[ticked] off." Now, finally, Santana appears to be on track to start an exhibition game next Thursday, and Alderson told Sirius XM Radio that too much was made of the situation.

It was mostly he-said-we-said-they-said gossip, fretted over during spring training but likely to be forgotten entirely if Santana's an effective member of the Mets' rotation come mid-April. That's no certainty, mind you: He's about to turn 34, he's had surgeries on his shoulder, elbow and knee, and his back acted up late last season.

Approaching his second season following the surgery, Santana enters territory largely uncharted. At his age and with his injury history, he likely faces hurdles many of us would deem insurmountable from afar and not even bother attempting.

But Johan Santana – again – is not many of us. Santana's the guy who pitched a shutout on three days' rest with a torn meniscus late in 2008 in a desperate attempt to preserve the Mets' dwindling playoff hopes. Santana's the guy who once repeatedly yelled "I'm a man!" at former manager Jerry Manuel when Manuel came to the mound to pull him from a game in the 8th inning. And, once more: career-threatening shoulder surgery. No-hitter.

It's insulting or silly or both to act like Santana spent his winter eating Cheetos and playing video games, or that he's content to rest on his laurels and cash his checks until the Mets buy out his 2014 option and send him forth into free agency. I don't know Santana personally and I don't aim to speak for the man, but that sure doesn't seem like the way he's wired.

With the Mets entering the 2013 campaign looking like a longshot to compete in the NL East, their best reasonable hope for Santana is likely that he pitches well enough to be traded for a prospect and some salary relief come midseason. Whether or not that happens, those following the Mets are best served appreciating the man, not doubting him. Yes, his salary accounts for nearly a third of the team's payroll. No, he was not ready to pitch when he arrived in Port St. Lucie in February.

But neither of those things appears to be Santana's fault, and so far the worst fallout from the latter has been the ensuing hubbub. What Santana has already done for the Mets – for which he was paid handsomely, no doubt, and all of which came in disappointing seasons – should at least merit faith from fans, media and his club that he knows more about being Johan Santana than anyone else in the world, and that a huge part of being Johan Santana means having a will to succeed that many of us could only hope to understand.